Weekly Report - 7 February 2013 (WR-13-05)

BRAZIL-ARGENTINA | Eliminating wheat import tariffs. On 5 February the Brazilian government announced that it was temporarily removing the 10% tariffs slapped on wheat imports from outside the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). This is the latest in a bout of measures adopted by the government of President Dilma Rousseff as a way of keeping a lid on inflation. Brazil’s development, industry and foreign trade ministry (MDIC) explained that the decision to suspend tariffs from 1 April to 31 July answered to the fact that there has been a drop in wheat production in Brazil as well as in Argentina from where Brazil sources a large proportion of its wheat. MDIC explained that by eliminating the tariffs, the government was hoping to ease some of the inflationary pressures as the current scarcity had caused prices of the staple crop to shoot up.

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